_Well it’s finally happened…. First I’ve got to say that we’ve been on the road constantly for some time and we are visiting as many historical sites as we can fit in. In doing all of this I’ve found myself WAAAYYY behind in my blogging and hence I make some mistakes. I have posted the Eisenhower story and tied it into the Valley Forge post…that was wrong !!! The Eisenhower farm is located just outside of the Gettysburg National Park not Valley Forge…SORRY !!! Another thing that I thought I would mention is that Valley Forge was a battle for Independence from England and took place between 1775 and 1783. And now I’ve got something else that has really gotten to me… Somehow I’ve lost ALL of my pictures from Gettysburg through Washington DC. This is just about the worst thing that could happen when writing and publishing a blog…RATS !!! Now I’m here to write about our tour to Gettysburg which was a battle between the Union and Confederate Armies where the battle lines were drawn up in two sweeping arcs on July 2, 1883. General Robert. E. Lee began moving his troops northward and by chance found that they were at the same place (Gettysburg) as the Union troops under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker on the 1st. On the 2nd the main portions of both armies were about a mile apart and Lee ordered an attack on the Union flanks. There was pushing back and forth with heavy losses on both sides. On the 3rd of July Lee’s artillery opened a 2 hour bombardment on the Federal lines followed with a charge of his infantry. The attack failed and cost Lee and his Confederate army 5,000 men in ONE hour. When the armies marched away from Gettysburg they left behind a community in shambles and over 51,000 soldiers dead, wounded, and missing. The wounded and dying from both sides were moved into nearly every building and the dead laid in hastily dug graves or left were they dropped. The situation became so dismal that the Governor authorized the purchase of enough land to properly bury the dead and this became the sacred grounds now called The Gettysburg National Cemetery. The cemetery was dedicated on the 19th of November, 1863 and the principle speaker was to be President Abraham Lincoln and the speech he gave is now known as The Gettysburg Address… I’ve mentioned many times before about seeing and enjoying the movies that are made available at the Visitor Centers and the movie at the Gettysburg VC is the best yet…IT WAS AMAZING !!! A little background is this… “The Battle of Gettysburg” is a painting by French artist Paul Philippoteaux. It is a 42 foot HIGH by 359 feet in circumference and was painted in 1883. Yes, it has been cleaned and placed in 4 different locations and I must say that it is unbelievable… As we stood at the mid height point in the “CYCLORAMA” (a building in the round) it looked like we were standing in the middle of the battle field. The feeling was as if we were in a 3-D movie but the reality was a painting on a flat wall 25 yards away from us and completely circling us in a battle scene. It didn’t move but a light would come on with the fire of the cannons and the sounds were of “war”…quite an experience !!! I’ve never had a need to take a camera into the visitor center and I sure as hell didn’t think I was going to need one there…little did I know and there wasn’t a second chance unless you wanted to purchase another $15 ticket. I take my camera now no matter what.